i'm betty nguyen. have a great weekend. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

i'm betty nguyen. and this is the "cbs morning news." w. i couldn't sleep right.day it took forever to get going. night after night, i sat up. sprayed up. took a shower... or took a pill. then i tried drug-free breathe right advanced. and instantly, i breathed better! i slept better. it felt...better. thank you, breathe right! [ male announcer ] breathe better, sleep better, feel better. try breathe right advanced for free... at breatheright.com. [ woman ] it's my right to breathe right. isn't it your right, too? >>> look at this. a new zealand family came home to quite a surprise. a baby seal resting on their sofa. they named it lucky and still a mystery how lucky managed to walk up from the harbor, cross a busy road, go through a pet door and make its way up the satairs to the sofa. the seal was eventually returned to the harbor. >>> scientists at mit have come up with a new kind of imaging system, a kind of super fast camera. it is so fast, it can capture the passage of light through or over an object. here is an example. the light rings on the apple and other

i'm betty nguyen. and this is the "cbs morning news." through the night.cid®24hr prevents the acid that causes frequent heartburn all day, all night. go to prevacid24hour.com for a $4 coupon. but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ deep breath] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] yes, it is. [ growling ] captain, one step at a time.keep going! come on, snowy. look! did you ever see a more beautiful sight? captain! it's just a mirage. - snowy? what is it, boy? - [ barks ] what do you see? [ yipping ] [ woman announcing ] just like snowy, your dog's one of a kind. overactive imagination and all. [ barking ] long live your buddy. long live your dog. [ tintin ] snowy! purina dog chow. see the adventures of tintin, only in theaters. >>> 1. come on! >> look at that. in washington, d.c., they lit the christmas tree at the u.s. capitol last night. house speaker j

i'm betty nguyen. and this is the "cbs morning news." ,,,,,,

i'm betty nguyen. and this is the "cbs morning news." w. i couldn't sleep right.day it took forever to get going. night after night, i sat up. sprayed up. took a shower... or took a pill. then i tried drug-free breathe right advanced. and instantly, i breathed better! i slept better. it felt...better. thank you, breathe right! [ male announcer ] breathe better, sleep better, feel better. try breathe right advanced for free... at breatheright.com. [ woman ] it's my right to breathe right. isn't it your right, too? >>> four minutes before 5:00 on a wpped morning, another nice day start. marty in the first warning weather center. >> it is actually 10 degrees warmer. >> feels like it. >> than yesterday. mid-30s, mid-20s yesterday. 51 at lunch, going to a high of 54 today. 46 this evening. we will start sunnier than we are going to end. it is partly sunny, if you will, partly cloudy right now. don take it away. >> thank you. here is what we have got our eye on for you today. air pollution, the operator of an incendiary agrees to pay nearly $80,000 in fines. >>> making

i'm betty nguyen. >>> it was the last debate before the january 3rd iowa caucuses and newt gingrich was the target. gingrich faced six rivals for the gop presidential nominations last night in sioux city. susan mcginnis is in washington with those details. how did all of this play out? >> reporter: they laid into newt gingrich again last night. not all of them but some of them did trying to stem his rise and each of them trying to stand out themselves as this contest for the republican nomination enters the final stretch. newt gingrich is trying to prove he is presidential material. >> i believe i can debate barack obama and i think in seven three-hour debates, barack obama will not have a leg to stand on. >> reporter: the gop front-runner spent much of last night's debate plugging his conservative record and fending off attacks from his rifle rova >> we can't have somebody who continues to stand for freddie mac and fannie mae. they need to be shut down, not built up. >> reporter: michele bachmann accused gingrich being a lobbyist for accepting $1.5 million from troubled mortgage lender

i'm betty nguyen. and this is the "cbs morning news." w. i couldn't sleep right.y it took forever to get going. night after night, i sat up. sprayed up. took a shower... or took a pill. then i tried drug-free breathe right advanced. and instantly, i breathed better! i slept better. it felt...better. thank you, breathe right! [ male announcer ] breathe better, sleep better, feel better. try breathe right advanced for free... at breatheright.com. [ woman ] it's my right to breathe right. isn't it your right, too? >>> good morning and welcome to 9news now. today is wednesday, december 14th. i'm andrea roane. >> i'm mike hydeck. it is cold but not nearly that cold. good morning, monica. bright and shiny in your orange. >> mr. bernstein. >> we'll take the low 40s. few more clouds today. it will be a dry wednesday around here. not so much a dry thursday but not terrible either. your day planner here at 4:25 on this wednesday morning. we're at 40 right now. we'll be in the upper 30s to around 40 through 9:00. by noon, partly to mostly cloudy. at 5:00, mostly cloudy. a hi

. >>> here is betty nguyen with more headlines. >>> iran said is shot down and uncovered a u.s.-unmanned spy drone but u.s. officials say it's probably a drone that crashed in afghanistan last week. some experts fear the spy plane could be reverse engineered to advance iran's drone program. >>> in germany this morning secretary of state hillary clinton and delegates from about a hundred countries are attending a conference on afghanistan's future. clinton says the u.s. is prepared to stand by afghanistan for the long haul even after our combat troops withdraw in 2014. >>> in london assange won in his appeal. swedish police want to question him about sexual assault claims by two women. >>> in washington, senate democrats say they will reach out to republicans today and offer a new compromise proposal to extend the popular payroll tax cut. president obama heads to kansas tomorrow to push for the tax cut calling it a make or break moment for america. if no deal is reached it will expire on december 31st. >>> the u.s. postal service is announces plans this morning for sharp cutbacks

michelle miller, cbs news, new york. >>> here is betty nguyen at the news desk with a check of today'smer penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky is in jail morning, after new child sexual abuse charges were filed. he was arrested yesterday and hasn't made the $250,000 bail. two new accusers claim sandusky molested them, one says he was attacked in the basement of sandusky's home. >>> in thailand this morning u.s. citizen joe gordon was sentenced two and a half years in prison for insulting the king of thailand. the thai born gordon pleaded guilty in october to using the internet to disseminate information that insulted the monarchy. he admitted posting material on a blog in the u.s. >>> and an apology of sorts from actor alec balancedin after he was booted off a cross country flight on tuesday for refusing to turn off his cell phone but he did not apologize to the flight attendant he argued with. in a statement, baldwin said, quote, i was singled out by this woman in the most unpleasant of tones. baldwin continued. i guess the fact that this woman who had decided to make so

. >>> betty nguyen is over at the news desk this morning with a check of your headlines on this friday. good morning. >> it's friday! good morning! >>> the family of a retired fbi agent who disappeared in iran four years ago released a video today that it received from his captors. robert levinson's family got the video last year. in it, levinson says he is not in good health and he pleads with the u.s. government for help. >> please help me get home. 33 years of service to the united states deserves something. please help me. >> levinson who is 63 was working as a private investigator in iran. the u.s. says it has no idea who is holding him. >>> well, u.s. official are denying iran's claim that it brought down a top secret u.s. spy drone with a cyberattack. in video released by iran, the drone appears intact. something the u.s. cannot explain. the u.s. says it lost control of a drone earlier this week and doesn't deny iranian don't have it. iran could try to reverse engineer the drone or hand it over to china or russia. >> in the course of two hours, l.a. angels spent $254 million for

. >>> betty nguyen is at the newsdesk with a check of some of the other headlines. 16 minutes past theour. betty, good morning. >> good morning, erica and good morning to you. well, a disturbing new report finds many more remains of american war dead were mishandled by the air force than previously acknowledged. "the washington post" reports that between 2004 and 2008 the partial remains of at least 274 service members were dumped, it says, cremated remains were mixed with medical waste then incinerated and sent to a virginia landfill. the practice was stopped three years ago. >>> recovery efforts resume this morning in nevada following that crash of a sightseeing helicopter. the helicopter flew ove >>> still ahead this morning, what is next for disgraced governor rod blagojevich facing 14 years now in prison for corruption. we'll get the story from his sentencing hearing. you're watching "the early show" right here on cbs. corruption. you're watching "the early show" on cbs. you learn to get a feel for the trouble spots. to know its wants... its needs...its dreams. ♪call 1-800-steemer

i'm russ mitchell . >> i'm betty nguyen. .lk to a the wife of robert levinson who is being held by the taliban in afghanistan. >>> a latest in the string of sexual allegations in sports and tell you why the charges are coming out right now. >> the woman who started an internet firestorm after admitting she went on dates just to, get this, a free meal. talk about that. >> imagine that. talk about that in a bit. >>> the family of retired fbi agent robert levinson are anxious to find him. he vanished five years ago in iran and his family believe he may be held there. they released a video just released and experts found any concludes as to where levinson's whereabouts. bob orr has more on the deepening mystery. >> please help me get home. >> reporter: it's the first public evidence in nearly five years. former fbi agent robert levinson may still be alive. >> i am not in very good health. i am running very quickly out of diabetes medicine. >> reporter: the tape received by the government and levinson's family last november was pos

betty nguyen is at the news desk with more headlines. you. britain is the only remaining hold-out this morning as all other nations in the 27-member european union agreed on a deal to head off the economic crisis. shore up their common currency, which is the euro, and tie their finances together. germany and france pushed the deal through during a marathon overnight bargaining session in brussels. britain, which doesn't use the euro, refuses to go along. >> we never going to join the euro. we're never going to give up the sort of sovereignty that these countries are having to give up. in order to enter a fiscal union. >> the new deal allows unprecedented involvement by the european union and national budgets. the 26 eu countries agreed to cap their deficits and agree in advance how much debt they plan to take on. >>> occupy wall street protesters in boston defied a midnight deadline to leave their downtown camp. and police did not try to enforce it. but when protesters blocked a nearby street, at least two were arrested. >>> and we have

i'm betty nguyen. have a great day. have a great day. have a great day.

i'm whit johnson in for betty nguyen. we begin with politics in the last lap before the iowa caucuses with just a week remaining before iowans capped the first vote of the 2012 campaign. the candidates are ready with a final round of speeches and unleash a new round of commercials. duarte geraldino has more. good morning, duarte. >> reporter: most decided to attend the caucus are still open to the idea of changing their minds. so with so much at stake, presidential candidates are becoming increasingly aggre aggressive. rick santorum was the only presidential candidate campaigning monday spending part of the day pheasant hunting. the real hunt in the top spot for the iowa caucuses will intensify today. >> i'm going to do something to government. i'm going to make it simpler and smaller and smarter. >> reporter: mitt romney released a tv advertisement that stated he tries to sway undecided voters. with only a week to go to the caucuses, the latest polls show a three-way race between romney, newt gingrich and ron paul. rick

i'm betty nguyen. this is "cbs morning news." nguyen. this is "cbs morning news."'ve been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. get back to the things that matte

back to you. >> all right, anna warner, thank you very much. >>> we return to betty nguyen at the newst nine years of wars, planeloads of u.s. troops are exiting iraq. due to withdraw by the end of the year. one of the places they're leaving is a military base in hillah, about 20 miles south of baghdad. cbs news correspondent jim axelrod is at the scene. >> at a military base, one of four military bases left in iraq, still under the control of the u.s. military, all the other bases have been turned over, either to the state department or to the government of iraq. what's happening here is this is a place where convoys come as they transition south to the kuwaiti border. north to south is how the troop withdrawal is going. they come to this particular place, cal sue, for maintenance, for fuel, for medical. essentially it's a truck stop on the way to kuwait. and everyone here will now break this particular base down, and head to kuwait. that means training for people who have not been out on the front lines, water handlers, even cooks have to get familiar with the weapons and the communi

. >> the automaker's green initiative is growing into an environmental revolution as betty nguyen reportsronmentalist. >> reduce our dependence on petroleum and conserve the environment. >> reporter: she is finding ways to get rid of the oil-based plastics in all of the company's vehicles. about 300 pounds per car. >> what we are trying to do is substitute in things that are more environmental or we could grow in this country and put that into the vehicles for all of the plastics around you. >> reporter: most other manufacturers are undertaking scholarship efforts. but ford's biomaterials team may be the most ambitious. the research here is already paying off in a big way. instead of oil from the middle east, a lot of the material in ford vehicles like foam used in seat cushions and head rests is derived from american-grown soybeans. >> it used to be made entirely of petroleum and now we substitute up to 25% soy oil instead of that petroleum oil. >> reporter: that adds up to over 3 million pounds of soy oil, a boon for the environment and farmers. future material in ford's green pipeline

. >> some of the other passengers are blaming him and he ask blaming the crew as correspondent betty nguyen reports. >> reporter: emmy award actor alec baldwin was apparently kicked off a los angeles flight for using his smart phone as flight attendants instructed all passengers to shut off electronic devices. he quickly turned to that same device to spread the news to his followers on twitter. flight attendant on america reamed me out for playing "words with friends" while we sat at the gate not moving. >> service told everyone to turn everything op. he was doing it. >> reporter: boxer os ka are de la hoya was hitting near baldwin and noted the incident. >> aleck balancedin was turning off his devices and he got a little angry. that's about it. >> reporter: while baldwin claimed to be playing a game, other passengers reported baldwin was actually talking on the phone and when the flight attendant insisted he shut off the device, he stormed in the bathroom and began to beat on the wall, causing a 45-minute delay. >> very rude. caused us to be delayed. not very considerate. >> alec baldwin.

betty nguyen, cbs news, new york. >> it's glor's move. i don't know what he's doing. >> our doors are closed. i asked you to turn it off. it's going to turn his run for mayor. >>> we're going to speak with the attorney for jerry sandusky. >>> and later, we'll have the 411 on a college course for students studying jay-z. the same way you may study shakespeare. you're watching "the early show" on cbs. what makes a hershey's bar pure? pure togetherness. pure friendship. pure delicious chocolate. pure hershey's. with less chronic low back pain. imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a non-narcotic treatment that's fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. peop

> we want to get you caught up on the rest of this morning's headlines and for that we turn to betty nguyen. good morning, betty. >> good morning. >>> santa ana winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour are expected to blow through southern california again today. but they are not expected to be as dangerous as the hurricane force winds that struck over the last few days uprooting trees that smashed into homes, cars, even power lines. look at this video. hundreds of thousands of people still have no electricity. many towns are under a state of emergency. crews are clearing gdebris. >>> a u.s. aid worker warren weinste weinstein. they are holding the 70-year-old development expert and will let him go only if conditions are met. cbs news mandy clark is in kabul in neighboring afghanistan. what is the latest on this kidnapping, mandy. >> reporter: the demands of the release for warren weinstein is extense pif including the end of air strikes in afghanistan and pakistan and all other muslim countries as well as the release of all prisoners at guantanamo bay. weinstein was abducted in august from hi

. >>> now for more of the rest of the headlines, here is betty nguyen. >>> on this one-year anniversary, there are fresh signs of the arab spring in libya and egypt. this morning, defense secretary leon pa net has arrived in tripoli, the nation's capital. he is meeting with leaders two months after the killing of dictator moammar gadhafi. panetta says the u.s. will not interfere in the turf war that has broken out from libya's civil war. >>> in cairo, egypt, a second straight day of deadly violence. pro democracy demonstrators armed with rocks and demanding an end to military rule clashed with egyptian troops. soldiers were reportedly stationed on nearby rooftops pelting demonstrators with stones. at least eight have been killed in two days of violence. nearly 300 have been injured. egypt has been racked by clashes in recent weeks since the army refused to give up power following the oust of president hosni mubarak. >>> florida officials are considering what charges to bring in the death of a college band member. his parents are also considering what action to take as we hear from corre

now we turn to betty nguyen for more of this morning's news headlines. >> good morning.you and good morning everybody. >>> christmas eve celebrations are getting under way around the world. thousands of pilgrims and tourists are gathering in bethlehem in the west bank said to be the traditional birth place of christ. later this morning, in vatican life-sized nativity scene in st. peter square. pope benedict xvi will celebrate the mass at the vatican. >>> a mass funeral for the twin suicide bombings. thousands of people turned out inside a damascus mosque where the people of the killed lined up. many of the words shouted words to the president bash ash ar al assad. >>> mr. obama delayed his christmas vacation for a week, due to the wrangling over the payroll tax cut. an hour after landing in honolulu the president and first lady went out to dinner to one of their favorite restaurants. the first family is expected to stay in hawaii until early january. >>> south carolina plans to fight to restore its controversial voter i.d. law. the justice department rejected the law fri

. >> reporter: betty nguyen, cbs news, new york. >>> and american airlines says its flight attendants follow federal safety regulations, regarding electronic devices. >>> a california man is arrested after police say his anger over a recent power outage crossed the line. they say the 73-year-old jeffrey commons threatened to get a gun and shoot everyone inside the city office. commons denies even owning a gun. he was arrested after arriving at the mayor's office to file a formal complaint. he said he was without power for six days, following last week's wind storm. >>> firefighters allow a tennessee house to burn to the ground. it's all because the homeowners could not afford to pay a $75 subscription fee for fire service. this is the second time they have watched a house burn because of unpaid fees. the city says it will not change the controversial policy because it cannot maintain its equipment without the money. >>> nearly all of the republican presidential candidates speak at a forum in washington, d.c. but the stakes are highest for two of them. mitt romney and newt gingrich are

betty nguyen, nbc news. >>> the emotional funeral for the late leader kim jong-il continues. it was an emotional scene all across north korea as thousands of north korean citizens said good-bye to their leader in an elaborate funeral. they stood in the snow crying as they watched his son and successor, kim jong-un walk alongside the hearse believeded to be carrying his father's body. at the end of the procession, rifles fired 2100 times as ma h marchers filed somberly by. the famine and the pursuit of an aggressive nuclear program. but it was a much different response just a few hundred miles away in south korea. there more than 200 activists gathered in seoul to celebrate kim jong-il's death. the protesters popped champagne bottles all the while defacing banners of the late north korean leader. >>> a local family is learning about the season of giving. days before christmas, they lost everything when their rental home was destroyed in a fire. thanks to a san jose police officer they're slowly getting back on their feet. this is a follow-up we first brought you last week. the

. >> reporter: betty kenealy, bud clause and hugh nguyen now live in the retirement community in springfield941, these people were at or near ground zero in pearl harbor hawaii when japanese forces heavily damaged the american fleet. betty was 9 years old at the time live ago jaunt to the airfield. her father -- living adjacent to the airfield. her father quickly evacuated her family. >> we found people were killed on the airport right after whet. the highway had been machine -- we left, the highway had been machine gunned and some of the housing was machine gunned. >> reporter: betty has a copy of the hawaii printed extra which far underestimated casualties. more than 2,400 people died. the editors got one thing right. the surprise attack meant the u.s. was going to war. hugh nguyen was a 25-year-old landscape architect for the defense department on pearl harbor day and remembers everyone being pressed into service. >> i know on the route there were two or three guys with machine guns. they were civilians and had never shot a machine gun. they had a boxful of ammunition and they were to sho

i'm betty nguyen. >>> this morning, the prewinter storm that hit parts of the southwest is moving eastareas could